As Internet connections become faster and more prevalent, one area of particularly fast growth has been the streaming of real-time media such as video and audio content to client devices. Personal computers, laptops, cell phones, PDAs, and other such devices that are equipped with streaming media clients can engage in streaming media to receive pre-recorded or live media in real-time. Moreover, with the advent of wireless client devices, such as 3G and 4G mobile phones, users can receive and enjoy streaming media content without being tethered to a desk or another fixed location.
Advanced “multi-media” cell phones, for instance, now provide media-player applications through which a user can select from a number of streaming media channels much like radio stations or television channels. When a user selects a desired streaming media channel, the media player may then send a session request to a designated media server and, after receiving session description parameters (e.g., codec, bit rate, etc.) from the server, the media player may begin receiving and presenting the requested media stream to the user.
Occasionally, as data is streamed in real-time, an interruption in a streaming media session may cause playout of the media to cease. In some cases, when a session is interrupted, the user may be required to re-start the media session (i.e., the session cannot be continued from the point where the interruption occurred). As a result, service providers have implemented failback proxy servers, which can continue a media session if a primary proxy server disconnects.